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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698869">trembling path</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlight_fairytale/pseuds/moonlight_fairytale'>moonlight_fairytale</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But no more than usual, Fluff, Gen, Mika is a bit of a mess, Post Graduation, Pretty much a pointless fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:28:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,028</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698869</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlight_fairytale/pseuds/moonlight_fairytale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Graduation, Mika is having a video call with Shu during one sleepless night.</p><p>(And that's it, this is basically the entire fanfic)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>trembling path</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The stars are twinkling above him as he walks in the empty streets. On his way to his apartment, he could see a few shopkeepers closing their shops, and a few people hurrying back home.</p><p><em>Home</em> is a weird word for Mika, because its meaning, for him, differs from how normal people would interpret it. Even though it was never permanent, it doesn't hurt as one would assume. A couple of years ago he would've reasoned it with the excuse of not having a stable home, but nowadays? He's learned that home is not about the place, but rather the people.</p><p>He takes a look at this phone, slightly sad at the <em>no new notifications </em>message on his home screen, but it's okay. He knew Oshi-san will answer when he can, and for now, he needs to hurry back to the apartment. It's closer to school than Oshi-san's house, but funnily enough, the walk feels longer with no company. He wished he could've gone with Naru-chan, but he had to take a few jobs in the school to keep Valkyrie's budget in a good state.</p><p>With the sight of the apartments' building closer, he speeds up, almost running to the front door, and once he's inside, he throws his shoes next to the door. <em>Bad habit</em>, he knows, but there's no one to tell him off. Besides, what's the fun of living alone if he has to keep everything organized? He's allowed <em>some</em> leeway if Oshi-san's away.</p><p>There's still no new messages from Oshi-san, so he makes sure to send one himself, that he's arrived home safely. He sends one to Naru-chan too, just in case. Everyone seemed to be worried about him living on his own, which — fair enough, he can understand, but it became unreasonable. To the point where in the first month Oshi-san would send him messages at 3 am, asking if he ate dinner!</p><p>Which he didn't, because he was a mess at the beginning, but no one needs to know, and besides, he's getting better. He pulls a favorited message from Oshi-san, with a complete schedule for a day with minimum training and some jobs (<em>so, so useful, </em>Oshi-san has prepared a few time tables like this one), and it states that he should've eaten dinner two hours ago.</p><p>He doesn't know if it's called dinner anymore when he eats it at 10 pm, but at least he does it and doesn't just…forget about it. Yes, he didn't forget it, he simply postponed it because the jobs he took ran longer than expected, that's it! Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice, suspiciously similar to Oshi-san's voice, tells him he should've packed something to eat ahead of time.</p><p><em>Doesn't matter! </em>He shuts it done and fishes leftovers from the fridge to warm up in the microwave. It's a bit of a downgrade after getting used to Oshi-san cooking, he has to admit, but it's not completely terrible. More than edible, by his standards.</p><p>His phone lights up, and he does as well, until he sees it's just a message from Naru-chan, telling him to go to sleep as soon as he gets home. He answers with <em>of course </em>followed by a bunch of heart emojis.</p><p> </p><p>Once he's finished eating, he cleans after himself. Because he's not a that much of a slob – yet he goes to sleep in a bedroom full of unpacked boxes he hasn't bothered to sort out. Maybe in the weekend, when he actually has time, he'll do his well-needed spring cleaning (now turned into summer cleaning).</p><p>It's another task he pushes to the back of his mind. Better to tell Naru-chan tomorrow, since he can't get it done on his own. Oshi-san's messages are more effective (because he imagines them in his <em>ton</em>) but at this point, he pretty scared to tell Oshi-san he has yet to organize his boxes. He tries to stop thinking about it, so he can fall asleep and won't be haunted by the moving boxes in his sleep, but all he's managing is staring at the ceiling. It's white, which is a stupid observation because none of his walls are painted in any color other than white, so why would it not be white? Maybe he can ask the agency to paint it a different color, like…wine red? Heh, that's a Valkyrie color, but he's not sure it'll look good on the walls.</p><p><em>So untasteful, don't even mention it again.</em> Oshi-san's imaginative voice tells him, and he laughs a bit. Yeah, maybe not wine red. He thinks someone told him that dark colors are bad for bedrooms anyway.</p><p>He entertains that silly thought for a bit longer, then realizes it's becoming late and he's failing at falling asleep.</p><p>He tries to empty his mind, still looking at the ceiling, but making sure to <em>not</em> think about its very white color (do you even paint ceilings?). It's not as though he's not tired, he <em>is</em>, but more mentally than physically. He doesn't practice as much as last year since there're no unit mates to train with yet, and he works about the same amount he usually does, but now that the baton's been passed, he has to take the creative role. There are already two complete notebooks in the clubroom, with many ideas, scribbled lyrics, half compositions, and many drawings. While he's not as creative as Oshi-san, he has his own visions. Visions that he very much would like to bring to life, but he's not good enough to do so. It was the most frustrating thing – how his skills are not caught up to his ideas. In the past, he had Oshi-san to criticize him, telling him what he should get rid of, new ideas to incorporate, and the things he should change because of certain sewing techniques. He really misses that, especially when now all he has to rely on is himself and his two left hands.</p><p>As if on cue, Oshi-san sends a message right at that moment.</p><p><em>Scary</em>, he thinks. He takes a look, a simple <em>Good, I hope you're already asleep. Don't forget to pack your lunch tomorrow morning</em>.</p><p>He doesn't want to miss the opportunity to talk to Oshi-san, since he's already missed one earlier that day due to his school job, and before he's even finished typing, Oshi-san's already sent him a threatening response. <em>Kagehira, it's past midnight in Japan. It'd better be my eyes deceiving me into imagining you're typing to me.</em></p><p>He deletes what he's typed, and replies with <em>Nope, sorry, Oshi-san! I'm just not tired!</em></p><p>He knows he'll be reprimanded for that, not only now, but also when Oshi-san will come back to Japan. He decides to distract Oshi-san for the time being.</p><p>
  <em>Are you done with your studies? You're probably eating dinner now, right? I already ate mine, so you gotta eat yours too!</em>
</p><p>Without mentioning that he ate dinner only shortly ago, of course. He waits for a couple of minutes, seeing Oshi-san types something for the longest time, and then, all of the sudden, he's startled by the screen of the chat replaced with an incoming video call.</p><p>Despite feeling both spoiled and scared at the same time, there was no way he'd miss a video call with Oshi-san. It was a rare occurrence, after all.</p><p>"Kagehira…" It took a few moments to load Oshi-san's face, who had a clearly distressed expression, pinching the bridge of his nose (or, so he assumed, some frames went missing on the way). "Must you make me so worried?"</p><p>"Sorry!" He apologizes again. "Didn't mean ta do it. I was a good boy today, I promise, just havin' some troubles sleepin'."</p><p>"Were you, now?" Oshi-san doesn't look any less worried. It makes him giddy to know that. "I swear that by the end of the year I'll have white hairs on my head because of you."</p><p>"You'll still look handsome, even with white hair!" He says without hesitation.</p><p>"But of course." Oshi-san seems to mull over something before continuing. "So what keeps you up? Any problems?"</p><p>"Nah, not really. We still don't have any new members." He realizes mid-sentence that he speaks about Valkyrie as though Oshi-san was still part of it. Oops, habits. "I mean, I saw some first years who wanted to audition, but no one came so far."</p><p>He's not particularly worried about it. There was an event in two weeks he's planned on participating in. It was a pain in the ass to get permission to join as a one-man unit (but it wasn't unheard of, after all), so he banks on the idea of attracting new students who were on the fence at that event.</p><p>Seeing Oshi-san's concern, he tells him his plan. "I'll get 'em with the new uniform!"</p><p>"Oh, the one you showed me last week? That ought to catch their attention. It's definitely a good costume."</p><p>"Hehe." He can't help but giggle in response to Oshi-san's compliments. Lately, he's been much more lenient with them, especially when comparing to last year. Half of it was probably due to the fact he can't exactly see the details in the photos so he can't comment about Mika's awful techniques, but the other half was 100% Oshi-san approving his ideas.</p><p>"Are you sure you'll be able to finish in time, though? When you sent me the picture, it was still mostly in cutouts and you only had the basic figure done…"</p><p>"Uhh, it'll be! I'm halfway done with the sewin'!"</p><p>"Don't rush it. You always have a tendency to make a mess when you are in a hurry."</p><p>"Yeah…"</p><p>"But don't stay too late to get it done. It's not healthy."</p><p>"Is it possible?" He wonders out loud.</p><p>"Obviously. There's a balance you'll need to master."</p><p>He doesn't comment on the fact that he's been an observer numerous times to Oshi-san's countless white nights, all in order to sew whatever monstrous creation he had on his mind, oftentimes a couple of days before a live.</p><p>"Never mind that. It's getting late and you're not getting any more tired with this conversation, or am I wrong?"</p><p>He's almost tempted to ask Oshi-san to sing him a lullaby, as an excuse to help him sleep, and with how he's been spoiling Mika tonight, it seems like it's possible, yet he has to stop himself. By the background, Oshi-san is in the university's common room, probably in the middle of his studies.</p><p>"Oh, Oshi-san…Y'were in the middle of a project? Did I disturb ya?" He's curious on what Oshi-san was working on, but he also doesn't want to waste his time.</p><p>"You're correct in your assumptions. It's an assignment for class, but I've just started sketching. I'll send you pictures when there's progress to show."</p><p>"And the sketchin'?" He's been trying to work on it. He doesn't have much talent for drawing, unsurprisingly, but there's so long he can go on with chubby short-limbed figures. Oshi-san wasn't the best either, his figures had arms too <em>long</em>, but at least it looked somewhat stylish.</p><p>"I can send them to you too if you really wish so, but not at this exact moment." <em>Right, </em>he needs to sleep. It's nearing 1 am, and if Oshi-san sends him the sketching, he'll surely stay up to review it. "We'll schedule a time for a meeting so we can sit and discuss it. There are a few new things I've learned and wanted to show you, as well."</p><p>It's honestly bewildering to know that even Oshi-san still has new things to learn.</p><p>"Alright! Maybe at the weekend, then?" There goes his plan for the spring-summer cleaning. "Nighty, Oshi-san!"</p><p>"Sleep well, Kagehira."</p><p>It worked like a charm. Just as the call disconnected, he fell down to his pillow. Maybe it was the tiredness finally catching up to him, or maybe it was Oshi-san's calming presence. Perhaps he was simply overworked. It really didn't matter, so long he was able to finally close his eyes. Although, he did dream about the moving boxes and Oshi-san coming out of one of them.</p><p>Hah, what a weird dream.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So this was pretty pointless, but I wanted to have some soft Valkyrie moment. I struggled a lot with Mika's "" accent "" and I think you could tell I gave up at some point...<br/>I have two more fanfics I'm working on, so let me know if you want to see them,,</p></blockquote></div></div>
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